The Daily Bucket: The Great Blue Heron on Bellingham Bay – Heronries and Habitat Preservation

My favorite picture of a GBH taken in the Padden Creek estuary within a quarter mile of the Heronry. This was taken a few years ago in early spring, about now.

The Great Blue Heron (GBH; Ardea herodias) is found in all parts of North and Central America. Although many areas like to claim them as their own, residents of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea in particular, feel a strong affinity for these statuesque creatures. To most locals, they are right up there with eagles and gulls as being part of our “native” landscape and part of our ecosystem. While not endangered at this time, they are considered a species of interest.

The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group.  It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers.  All are worthy additions to the bucket.  Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment.  Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.

As is probably of true a large number of heronries and their habitats around the country, our local ones have been encroached upon by development, polluted by industry, and degraded by loss of habitat. We have four such heronries in Whatcom County (the far northwestern corner of Washington State), and all have required preservation and reparation efforts to keep them viable. Recently significant restoration efforts have been taken locally and the Great Blue Heron (GBH) seems to be holding its own. This diary shows our local GBHs from one heronry that has survived in spite of habitat loss and industrial encroachment to within 30 yards of its closest nesting trees.

Please follow below the intricately woven heron's nest to see the herony itself being built by Mom and Pop herons.